Midi synthesizer?

[Jaepheth]

I got an M-Audio keystation midi controller.

I hooked it up to my PC, but the lag is really bad. I'm trying to figure out how to remove the latency, but in case I can't figure it out...

Is there a simple box that'll take a midi input and output an analog piano sound?
What exactly would such a module be called? (Having trouble finding such a thing in my web searches)

 

[ImpulsE69]

How are you hooking it up to the PC? Via USB or a external DAW?

You probably need to either A. install better asio drivers (try asio4all) or B. make sure your control is going through your DAW's asio driver.

 

[Jaepheth]

Hooked up using USB and running Ableton Live Lite that came with the keyboard.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Windows asio drivers are inherently laggy. Google for what I said above it should get you down to a tolerable level of latency. It should be default be able to use your midi sounds.

 

[vbuggy]

"Windows asio drivers are inherently laggy"
^False.

Give us a full rundown on your setup, and we might be able to help more. What mobo/PC, where it's plugged in. Soundcard. etc

 

[ethebubbeth]

I have a Keystation and just to play and mess around with it I use a free open source synthesizer called ZynAddSubFX. I have the keyboard plugged in via USB and just selected it as the midi input within the program. If you want to use it for recording or with other VST plugins, there is a VST version of it available.

 

[Mixolydian]

Is there a simple box that'll take a midi input and output an analog piano sound?
What exactly would such a module be called? (Having trouble finding such a thing in my web searches)

Synthesizer, sampler, sound module.

I also have a Keystation and have never notice latency of any kind, but I'm using it on a Mac.